


Unfortunate Tale Of A Girl

by KittenHero



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Bullying, Cheesy, F/M, Flirting, Friendship, Gen, Personality Swap, Reader-Insert, Underage Drinking, Unrequited Crush, general highschool angst, it's like a teen rom-com tbh
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-28
Updated: 2018-08-25
Packaged: 2019-05-29 16:23:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15077075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KittenHero/pseuds/KittenHero
Summary: "It wasn’t anyone’s fault you were having a crap day. Not directly anyways. You knew things were going too bad when you had stubbed your toe on your nightstand as soon as you got out of bed. You quickly surmised that everything in the universe had decided today was the day it needed to absolutely destroy you."This is the tale of a girl who got exactly what she wished for.





	1. Monday

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!
> 
> This is an idea I came up with in 2016. It's one of the first stories I've ever completed and I decided I wanted to rewrite it this year because the first draft has fun ideas but is hot mess. I believe this version is better so I really wanted to share it somewhere. I'm going to try to get at least one chapter out a week but no hard promises because life.
> 
> Hope you enjoy it!

It wasn’t anyone’s fault you were having a crap day. Not directly anyways. You knew things were going too bad when you had stubbed your toe on your nightstand as soon as you got out of bed. You quickly surmised that everything in the universe had decided today was the day it needed to absolutely destroy you.

After getting blasted by cold water in the shower, only having one clean shirt of an ill-fitting size, and finding nothing but crappy stale cereal to eat, you remembered how you forgot to refill your gas yesterday. Your mom was already on her way to work and the buses would be close to school by now. Your only option was to walk all the way across town. Fan-flipping-tasic.

You cursed at yourself as it started to rain as you approached downtown. You’d been too caught up in the mess that was currently your life to remember the weather report. Scattered thunderstorms all week. As if right on cue, Thunder rumbled above you and you yelped. You decided to get to school as quickly as possible before you got struck by lightning. By the time you checked in at the front office you were soaking wet and 20 minutes late for first period.

 

You walked into geometry, handed the late pass to your teacher, and made your way over to your seat. Other students, including two of your friends Geoff and Jack, were looking at you. You tried your best to ignore the snickers and stares of confusion.

The teacher called your name, “Do you have last night’s homework?”

You sighed in relief as you dug into your bag. You had most definitely done it; you know you had. But as you took it out, you found it had turned into a soggy, tearing piece of paper. The teacher raised an eyebrow at you.

“I’m not accepting that. Do it again and you can turn it tomorrow for half credit. Please try to be more careful with your belongings.”

You wadded up the unreadable mush and threw it in the trash can. As you went back to your seat, you saw Jack, who sympathetically smiled, and Geoff struggling to keep it together. You glared at Geoff. The rest of class consisted of you breaking every pencil you owed in till Jack loaned you one. You had just started redoing your homework as the bell signally the end of class rang.

As the class room emptied out, Geoff leaned on your desk giggling like a mad man. “Why do you look like someone dumped a bucket of water on your head?”

“It’s called rain, Geoff. It makes things wet.” You started putting away your now just damp, as opposed to dripped wet, notebook.

“Are you okay?” Jack spoke up from the other side of you.

“Just peachy.”

Jack frowned at you. “I could have given you a ride.”

You still wanted to be mad, but Jack was making it hard, “Guess I wasn’t thinking.”

“Clearly,” Geoff spoke up again and you rolled your eyes,” You’re still helping me with my party planning after school, right?”

“Sure, whatever,” You got up grabbed your backpack and started to leave. You could hear Jack talking to Geoff about something but you didn’t listen. The only thing you wanted to do was pray this day was going to get better.

 

It didn’t.

Something seemed to go wrong in every class. Your luck really started to spiral downwards in English. When you gotten there Michael, Gavin, and Ray were too busy talking to acknowledge you sitting down.

“Did you lads read last night’s chapters?” Gavin was turned around in his seat so that he could face both Michael and you. Ray was to his left.

“Nah, I was too busy with taking notes for the essay test,” Ray shrugged.

“What essay test?” Your head shot up.

“Woah, dude, you look like a mess,” Michael blinked like it was his first time seeing you, “The one Mr. Pat announced last week. On Friday, remember.”

It all came rushing back. You groaned and let your head hit your desk. You were going to make a notes sheet Sunday, and then got distracted by a phone call by Geoff. Geoff always felt like calling you to talk about dumb stuff. Then you’d indulge his dumb stuff because you thought he was kind of cute. Just a little. Less than a little. At least that’s what you told yourself.

“I take that as a no,” Ray huffed a laugh. Then you took the test which could be classified a low-level disaster.

 In history, you spent most of the time trying to air out your textbook. Gym consisted of tripping over, and over, and over again. When you talked to Ryan at your locker between classes he’d been too wound up to let you get a word in. “They’re thinking about cutting the theater program budget in favor of football, again. How are we supposed to get anything done?” You could only nod as kept stumbling over trash on the ground trying to keep up with the tall boy.

 You thought that maybe art would be better. Even if you weren’t good, it was still usually relaxing at the least. Your hopes were quickly dashed as you dropped your paints and had to spend the whole class period cleaning it up.

 

Sore and exhausted, you stood outside of the cafeteria doors. Surely some food would make you feel better. You pushed open the brown heavy doors and flinched at how noisy is was. On sunny days lots of people would eat out doors although, since it was still pouring all of the round circular tables were filled with chatty students.

You approached your table and all of your friends were already there smiling and laughing. You sat with a thud between Ray and Jack. The conversation at the table died down as they looked at you. You refused to make eye contact with anyone.

“So…” Geoff tapped his tattooed hands on the table. You didn’t want sink into the pool of awkwardness that was now flooding the table, so instead you pulled out your lunch bag. It hadn’t survived the rain, and neither had most of your lunch. You heard a gagging noise come from Gavin as your wet sandwich hit the table. Michael suppressed a laugh. You didn’t care enough to throw it away, so instead you ripped the top of your water bottle.

On your right Ray, a short boy with black hair and glasses, spoke up,” Did you guys see the banner in the gym hallway?” You silently thanked Ray for saving all of you from certain disaster.

“The ‘Go Roosters” one?” Gavin sat up excitedly, “Is that yours, Ray?”

“Yep,” Ray leaned back in his seat putting his hands behind his head.

“Ah, it looked wicked boy!”

As the conversation over Ray’s banner continued, Jack tapped you on the shoulder and offered to throw out your food for you. You nodded once in acceptance, feeling heat creep up the back of your neck. By the time Jack had made it back to the table, the conversation was back in full swing. Michael started to complain about the dumb interactions he had at work yesterday. You had started to zone out somewhere between the talk of COD DLC and Ryan talking about Physics.

It’s not like you didn’t care, because you did. You just couldn’t care right now. The fact that no one had tried to talk to you when you sat down was really bothering you. It was somewhat understandable. You must have looked pissed but you were. You needed to get this frustration out of your system somehow.

Everyone was currently focused on yelling at Gavin about who knows what. Michael was going in the hardest on teasing with Ryan in a close second place.

“I really don’t think you understand how airplanes work,” Ryan made a face at Gavin who made a similar face back.

“I’m the only one of us whose been on a plane, what are you on about?”

“That is not even remotely true!” Michael raised his arms frustrated. Geoff was laughing to himself, Ray was face palming, and Jack was watching the whole spectacle in confusion.

You clearly weren’t going to get anything here. You got up grabbing your backpack. Everyone was too involved to even notice you’d gotten up. As you rounded the table to leave, something hit you rather hard in the face. You blinked a couple of times and then your eyes welled up with tears.

“Oh my gosh, dude I’m sorry,” Geoff spoke up,” Are you alright?”

“You guys are the worst. Just ugh-,” your voice cracked as the tears ran down your face. Someone stood up behind you, but you just started walking away. They called your name to come back and you walked even faster. When you got into the hallway, you took off.

 

You somehow ended up in a bathroom on the second floor. This was your free period, and you intended to spend it crying in the bathroom. You were mad at yourself for not talking to Jack earlier. You were mad at you’re the guys for not attempting to talk you. You rubbed the bridge of your nose, mad at the way you’d reacted to getting smacked in the face by Geoff.

The door to the bathroom opened and you sniffed. Someone called your name. You didn’t want to do this right now. Footsteps echoed slightly across the tile as they approached your stall.

“Do you want to talk?”

It was Lindsay, who’d been in English during your lunchtime fiasco. She was probably here on a peace mission because she was the only one in the group who could go into the girl’s bathroom.

“Yeah.”

“Can I come in?”

“Hold on,” You got up and unlocked the stall door. You peeked on either side of her. She noticed, “I came alone, don’t worry. What’s up?”

“Just crying, no biggie.”

She laughed a bit, “No but seriously, are you okay?”

“No. But it’s about something stupid.”

She threw her arm around you and lead you to the sinks, “Stupid is good.”

You sighed as Lindsay sat up on the counter. You started to explain your day to her. It sounded stupidly absurd coming out of your mouth. The unreasonable amount of bad luck you’d had today, the fact that no one seemed to acknowledge you when you needed it, and worst of all, the way you acted at lunch was embarrassing. Lindsay gave you a hug when you finished speaking.

“Everyone is worried about you.”

“I just wish they weren’t themselves sometimes, you know?”

Loud thunder boomed above the two of you and the lights flickered out leaving you too in complete darkness.

“My bad luck continues,” you murmured. Lindsay and you both reached for your phones. You went to look for the time and saw your dash was flooded in text notifications from your friends. You’d have to deal with them eventually, but not now. “I think I’m feeling better Lindsay. I mean, I’m still embarrassed.”

“Embarrassment is human. It’s cool.”

You chuckled, “Yeah, you’re right. Thanks for listening Linds.”

“I know you’d do the same for me.” Lindsay and you hugged once more, “Take it easy okay?”

 Luckily, the rest of your friends were not in your last class, biology. Since the power was still off, you just did worksheets. You texted your mom to pick you up after school. You gave a quick thought to reading their texts but fought the urge. You just needed a little time to decompress. Tomorrow you’d apologize for your behavior. By then you’d be less emotional and able to put your thoughts together.

You left the building as slowly as possible trying to avoid all the places the guys might be waiting for you. You avoided your locker and went out the back entrance by the gymnasium. You ducked into your mom’s car as quickly as possible to get out of the rain. As you pulled around to the front of the school, you caught a glimpse of the guys standing together looking at the front doors.

You ducked down further into your seat, heart slamming against your chest as you headed home praying tomorrow would be better.


	2. Changes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You start your day again with the intention of apologize to the guys only to find some of them seem to have changed...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted to thank you everyone for all the positive comments, kudos, and reads I've gotten over the past week. I can't stop smiling every time I think about them! I'd been putting off this rewrite for a couple of months but you've really reignited my passion to work on this story. So yeah, thanks for that.
> 
> Alright, onward to the story!

Before you could open your eyes, a roar of thunder sent you out of bed and crashing onto the floor. You struggled to unwrap yourself from the covers, sleep very much so still in your limbs. Once you punctuated your soft cocoon, you rubbed your butt and stood up.    

“Good morning to me.” You turned to look out the window and blinked with surprise. It was perfect day outside, blue sky and sun shining bright. It didn’t even look wet outside. Maybe you’d just imagined the rumble? They’d been coming and going so frequently, thunderstorms had kind of become the norm for you.

Despite falling out of bed, the rest of your morning routine went smoothly. Your mom informed you that she’d filled up your car when you came down for breakfast. As you devoured you pancakes a brilliant idea struck you. The best way to apologize was with food, especially when apologizing to teenage boys. You left the house a little earlier than usual so that you’d have time to stop by your favorite bakery downtown.

 

After the small detour, you made it to school with enough time to talk to everyone before classes started. You made your way to the cafeteria, apology boiling in your head. You’d lead with your feelings and then after they forgave you, you’d slam the bag of donuts down and they’d proclaim you friend of the year, if everything went right of course. You maneuvered your way to the table only to find it empty. You sighed and sat down. They were probably avoiding you like you’d been avoided them. You waited there for a bit in till you heard someone call your name.

Your head shot up to see Geoff and Michael approaching except they looked…different. Geoff, who was usually decked out in a black t-shirt and ripped jeans, was wearing a sweater vest, a button up rolled up at the elbows and slacks. Michael who never went a day without wearing a videogame t-shirt was wearing nice marron sweater. You blinked a couple of times in disbelief as they sat down across from you.

“There you are!” Geoff said, “We were looking for you. I was wondering if you could read something for me and tell me what you think.” He pulled out a small stapled stack of paper and pushed it across the table to you. Thumbing through it quickly, all the pages were filled with well formatted text. You’d never seen Geoff do an essay in his life, and if he did he’d never go parading it around like this.

“What is this?”

“My speech for student council, dummy,” He smiled proudly.

“Since when have you been interested in student council?” You looked back down at the writing and saw phrases like ‘a vote for Ramsey is a vote for a better recycling program’ and ‘I’ll make sure to keep the locker rooms clean’. What had gotten into Geoff? Your brain flashed back to yesterday when you had told Lindsay that you wished they were different. Maybe she’d told them, and this was Geoff overcompensating to make you feel better.

“Alright, I get it. I asked you guys to change and you did, but I didn’t mean it. It’s just that-“ You stopped as you saw Geoff’s face go from happy go lucky to concerned.

“You never asked Michael and me to change? Are you feeling alright? Are you sick?” Geoff slowly pressed the back of his hand against your forehead and you blushed. He was taking this way too far. “You don’t feel warm…”

You looked over at Michael who was reading a book. You’d almost forgotten he had been there. He hadn’t said a word since he sat down. This was so unlike him it was almost scary. Then you froze.

“Hey Geoff,” you slowly pushed his arm away from his face, “Where did your tattoos go?”

“I’ve never had tattoos. I already told you I think they’re kind of dumb. Are you sure you’re feeling alright?”

You leaned back in your seat and held your breath. Whatever was happening, you’d just have to play along for now. Maybe one of them would crack after a while? You let out a small chuckle, “Oh yeah, how could I forget. Sorry, I just had the weirdest dream last night where you did…have…tats.”

“That is weird,” Geoff laughed along with you, “Well if you’re feeling alright, you ready for Geometry?”

“Sure.” You slung your backpack over your shoulder and looked to the bag full on treats on the table. “Before I forget,” You dug into the bag and handed both Geoff and Michael a donut.

“What’s the occasion?” Geoff looked over the chocolate donut in his hand.

“I guess, I was just thinking about you guys this morning.” You shrugged lamely. Those were meant as an apology but these guys clearly didn’t need to be apologized to. Might as well not let them go to waste.

“That’s so thoughtful!”

“Thanks.” Michael said and went back to reading. You stared at him for a second. So, he does speak.

“C’mon, let’s go.” Geoff started walking towards the cafeteria doors.

“Coming!” You snapped back to reality and followed him out. This was too weird.

 

***

 

While Geoff ate his donut in the hallway, you checked your phone. The texts you’d received yesterday weren’t there. Curious, you also checked your contacts. Several of them were missing too. Ray, Gavin, Jack, and Ryan were nowhere in there making it sink it that something was severely wrong with the universe. You had tried to find a logical explanation but found none. You thought about texting anyways them but based on what you’d seen so far you didn’t want to risk anything.

As the two of you walked into Geometry and took your seats, you started to wonder if the other guys had changed as well. Right on cue, Jack walked into the classroom. He was being followed by a few other students you vaguely knew chatting away. Then he took his usual seat next you, but usual for him, he didn’t even glance in your direction.

“Hi Jack…”

He looked at you for a second before scoffing and going back to his phone. You blinked in surprise taking a second to comprehend what had happened. You didn’t care who this person was, you refused to be treated like that. Before you could reach over to tap Jack and give him a piece of your mind, a hand land on your shoulder. Turning around you saw Geoff furrowing his eyebrows at you in confusion.

He sat down in his seat and brought out a notebook. You watched as he quickly scribbled something on the page and passed it over to you. Despite appearing put together Geoff’s hand writing still sucked dick. It took a minute to decipher.

_What are you doing??? Don’t pick fights._

You grabbed a pen out of your bag so you could reply.

_Jack’s being a jerkhole_

Geoff grabbed his notebook as you handed it to him. You watched him frown as he read it, then he scribbled something else and handed it back.

_Just ignore him. We don’t talk to him anymore anyways. Why start now?_

 You looked up at Geoff. You weren’t used to him being so level headed and reasonable. It was just as odd as Jack shutting you out.

_Okay_

Geoff nodded and smiled at you seemly satisfied with your response and started pulling out his materials for class. Curiosity burned in your gut as you tried to figure out what Geoff meant when he ‘anymore’. After you turned in your redone homework, the rest of class was rather uneventful. You kept throwing quick glances at Jack and you decided that you needed to pull him aside after class. This all could be an elaborate prank to mess with you. Geoff was pretty good at pulling a long con. He could have covered up your tattoos with makeup. Who knows, they could have gotten Ryan to hack into your phone to really seal the deal. That still wouldn’t explain Jack’s behavior but if you could just pull him aside you could find out if this was a prank for sure. Jack would surely break if you asked him.

The bell rang signifying the end of class and you packed up as fast as you could. You watched as Jack and his new friends got up and made their way to the door. You followed them out into the hallway.

“Jack,” you called out as you approached the broad boy. “Can I talk to you for a second?”

Jack rolled his eyes (mostly towards his friends in a ‘can-you-believe-this’ kind of way) but nodded. You lead him down the hallway in to an alcove next where the vending machines were. His expression of annoyance maintained the entire walk over.

“What was up with you back there?”

“What do you mean?” Jack raised an eyebrow at you.

“You’re supposed to be nice to your friends.”

“Okay? We’re not friends so…I don’t know what you want from me.”

“But why- “

Jack placed a hand on your shoulder, “I don’t know what’s gotten into you. We haven’t been friends since like middle school. Did you forget or…?”

You stood there baffled for a second. Jack face was unwavering. This was real. He saw the look on your face and let you go, “I don’t know what you want me to tell you. We just grew apart. Sorry, I guess.” He shrugged and turned to walk away.

“Jack, wait, I got you this,” you grabbed a donut from out of the little paper bag. Tears started welling up in your eyes. You didn’t want him to go but you didn’t have anything to make him stay. You had to figure out a way to fix this. He took it from your eyebrow furrowed in confusion.

Jack pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “Whatever.”

Once again, he turned away and walked back into the flow of students. You watched as he dumped the donut in the nearest trashcan before regrouping with his friends. Your eyes landed back on Geoff near the doorway of the Geometry room. He gave you a small smile before making his way over to you.

“I’ll, uh, see you after classes.” He patted you on the shoulder before leaving you alone in emptying hallway as your throat tightened and you started shaking. This was real but so so so incredibly wrong.


	3. The Worst Type

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You run into more of your altered friends and can't help but feel mixed emotions about the encounters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo!
> 
> Here's another chapter and it's much longer than the last one. After setting up a proper outline, it makes more sense to break the story up into more chapters. I feel like I need to apologize ahead of time for this chapter and promise you the guys get better.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

You had almost considered spending your free period in the bathroom crying again but you had to make sense as to what was happening. You had come to two conclusions. First, the guys were different and you didn’t like it one bit. Sure, you hadn’t meet them all yet, but that interaction with Jack in the hallway had been enough to convince you this change was for the worst. Second, you needed to figure out how to fix this. The best way to start would be to meet the rest of the guys, to see what you were working with. You hadn’t thought too far about what you’d do afterwards but you had to start somewhere.

You pushed opened the doors to the library. Michael was there sitting at your regular table. It was way in back where the librarians wouldn’t immediately scold the two of you for being too loud. You were a bit surprised he’d been there considering he hadn’t said anything to you earlier. He and you usually spent this free period together but considering the differences you weren’t sure if he’d even be there. But there he was, hunched over the same book he was reading from earlier.

He barely looked up as you approached. Michael would be a good place to start your investigation. He hadn’t shown any outward animosity towards you (at least not yet) which meant he must have at least liked you a little.

“Hi Michael,” you smiled and sat across from him, “What’cha reading?”

He put down his book and started digging through his bag.

“A book.”

You frowned. Michael would usually would give in depth summaries of things that happened to him with or without prompting. It could about the most mundane things but the way he’d phrase it was always entertaining. You tried to prompt him again, “Yeah, but what’s it about?”

“Um, it’s like about these two armies fight a war in space. It’s okay I guess. Do you have your history notes or are you just going to copy mine?”

“I got them, don’t worry.” You slowly starting unzipping your bag, “Speaking of history, you know the guys that sit in front of us? Gavin and Ray?” You didn’t want to come off too eager to talk about what were probably strangers to him in this world. Michael’s face scrunched up landing somewhere between fear and disgust. That was a bad sign.

“Yeah…”

“Do you have any idea of where they might be right now?”

“Why do you care?”

You panicked trying to find a reasonable explanation, “A teacher asked me to tell them about this afterschool…thingy.”

“Okay?” He clearly didn’t buy it but clearly, “Um, well Gavin and Ray are supposed to be in class right now. I think.”

It wouldn’t be the smartest idea in the world to try to get their attention from the hallway and the word ‘probably’ gave you the strong feeling that they were skipping class anyway. You didn’t know anything about how these boys acted so it’d be impossible to predict where they might be. Spending your free period running around would probably be the worse way to spend your time. Then it clicked as you remembered a certain theater nerd who also had free period at the moment.

“What about Ryan?”

“Ryan who?”

“Haywood.”

Again, Michael furrowed his eyebrows together as he opened his textbook, “He’s probably at practice.”

“For the play?” There was a second of confusion in his eyes, then a small smile, followed by loud laughter which Michael quickly suppressed with his mouth. It was shocking that this boy was capable of making such a loud noise.

It took a second for him to calm down before shakily uttering, “Sorry, just the image of our school’s quarterback up on stage doing Hamlet is amazing.”

You smiled standing up from the table, “So he’s out on the field?”

“Yeah but you probably shouldn’t-“

“I have to go,” You swung your bag back over your shoulders, “I’ll see you in English, okay?”

You couldn’t wait for Michael’s response. You needed to hustle to the field before free period ended.

 

You rushed out the backdoors of the school. Feelings from yesterday started to creep their way up your neck but you shook them off. There wasn’t time for self-pity. You clutched your bag tighter and crossed the street to get to the dry field. You’d never been to the football field this early before, mostly because you didn’t have a reason to come out here. The indoors was much more your speed. Air conditioning in something you valued more after moving to dry hot Austin Texas.

You approached the bunch of guys around the bleachers drinking from water bottles and chatting idly. You scanned the crowd and saw Ryan sitting to the side talking animatedly as usual with a short blonde boy and a brutish guy you knew was a senior. Before you could stop yourself, you called out his name.

“Ryan!”

The twenty or so boys turned to look at you. Maybe rushing out here had been a mistake. You didn’t even know if he knew you or not. It was silent for a few moments before a boy spoke up from the crowd.

“Damn Haywood, how many does that make it this week?”

“You have to leave some for the rest of us dude,” The tall senior said. The rest of the guys snickered. Yep, this was a big old mistake.

“Let’s get a good look at you,” A greasy looking guy standing next to you starting walking around you, “Definitely cuter than the last one.” He started to reach out to touch your hair but you slapped his hand away.

“Fuck off, asshole.”

“Ow, what the hell?” He rubbed his hand.

You heard some laughter from the crowd and quickly decided this wasn’t worth your time. You’d just catch Ryan later, when he wasn’t surrounded by jerks. You turned on your heels and started right back towards the building. You’d only made it a few feet before someone grabbed your arm, stopping you. You whipped and saw Ryan with amused look on his face. Instinct wanted you to run into his arms but you pushed it back and kept on guard.

“What?”

“Hey, calm down. You’re the one who came out here.” He held up his hands defensively.

“And now I’m leaving.”

“Wait.” He grabbed your arm again and led you a couple steps forward. “Let’s hear it.”

“First off, stop grabbing me,” you narrowed your eyes, “Hear what?”

“You came out here to tell me you like me, right? You’re cute so I’ll hear you out.”

You blinked in confusion, blushing, “What’s your problem?”

“I just didn’t want you to come all the way out here for nothing. You worked up the courage to come out here, might as well get it off your chest now.”

He was grinning down at you expectantly. A wave of anger washed over you. You had a zero-tolerance policy when it came to people belittling you.

The next thing you knew you were smushing a pink frosted donut into his jersey. Ryan stood there, shock on his face. From the bleachers, the guys were laughing and murmuring to each other. You took a couple steps back, the realization of what you had done finally hitting you. Oh crap. You needed to get out of there. Who knew what might happen if you stuck around? Without giving him a chance to respond, you turned and bolted.

 

***

Somehow today had managed to become even worse than yesterday. Ryan was the type of guy to step in between you and…well assholes like this Ryan. It wasn’t like you couldn’t defend yourself but having someone tall and sort of intimidating like him didn’t hurt either. But now, you were on your own and you’d probably embarrassed him or worse. How the heck were you going to get close to him again after that? You didn’t even want to think about the implications of what’d you done yet. Maybe everything would go back to normal before then and you wouldn’t have to deal with the consequences. As you walked into English, you pulled your books closer to your chest and prayed nothing too bad would happen.

Michael was sitting at your table, head deep in the novel from earlier.

“How’d it go?”

“Swimmingly. You know I thought it’d be a bit cliché to assume the jocks were jerks but I was wrong.”

“Yeah. Most girls come away from the field looking like they want to die,” He shrugged. “There are already a ton of rumors going around about what you did.” How was that even possible, it happened ten minutes ago? You were about to turn back to Michael and ask what they were about when lanky British boy strode into the room. Michael glanced up and the same look from earlier hit his face.

“Ugh, _him_.”

 Gavin walked his way up your aisle with his head held high. He made sure to flash a smile at the girls a couple of rows in front of you, who giggled in response. You could already tell why Michael seemed to dislike him. This Gavin had gained some much-needed confidence but in return he’d seemed to lose some tolerability. He got onto his seat backwards, a smirk pre-loaded on his face.

“Hi Micoo.”

Michael started playing with the front of his sweater. It probably wasn’t the best idea to get into any more trouble today, but you’d throw down for Michael if you needed to.

“Quiet as always, huh Micoo?” Gavin chuckled before turning his attention to you, “Have you had some time to reconsider my offer, love?”

“What offer?”

“Stop hanging out with mingy friends and start going out with me.” He leaned forward. Your heart skipped a beat. You’d thought you were done with confessions for the day.

“Well…maybe this will answer your question. Close your eyes.” You smiled sweetly at him. Gavin raised an eyebrow and followed your request, but not before pulling his signature smug face at Michael. Michael looked over to you horrified and you pressed a finger to your lips. You leaned over, reached into the paper bag, and pulled out out a glazed donut.

“Still closed?” You said as sexually as you could manage. Michael finally caught on and flashed a wide grin. Why not have some fun with this after the rough day you’d had?

“’Course.”

You gently pressed the donut up against his lips. Gavin’s eyes flickered open in confusion and Michael threw a hand cover his mouth and turned away suppressed another laugh.

“Not a chance, you donut.” You laughed mocking his accent badly. He rolled his eyes and took the donut out of your hands. The wave of emotions that had hit you when he asked you out had surprised you. Of course, there was the immediate weirdness of a friend asking you out but a small part of yourself was excited by the idea. You were just going to chalk it up to nerves and move on with your life because that would make things less complicated and weird than they already were.

“Ha. Ha. Very cute.” He took a bite and started to turn around. “It’s fine, but if you ever change your mind you know where to find me. Unless of course, Haywood’s more your type.”

Michael was right. Rumors must having been going around really fast. “No. Where’d you hear that?”

He quickly reversed in his seat, satisfied that he’d gotten your attention again. “Some girls in the hallway were talking about it. They said you two got into a little lover’s quarrel?”

“As if.”

“I also heard you were trying to ask him to homecoming with that donut that you apparently threw at him.”

“I didn’t throw anything at him!” You huffed, “None of that is true. Besides I gave you a donut too, if that makes you feel any better.”

“You did, didn’t you?” Gavin gave you a soft smile before turning around. The teacher, Mr. North, clapped his hands signally the start of class. As he started around the worksheets for the day, you sighed.

Despite the fact that a guy like this clearly didn’t deserve your attention in ‘real life’, at the end of the day he was still Gavin. He was your friend, and a good one at that. Maybe you’d read too far into his smile just now but there might someone decent deep in him and you just hadn’t seen it yet? The same went for Ryan and Jack. You hadn’t gotten along perfectly with everyone when you’d first met so it didn’t seem fair to just blow them off. You needed to try and smooth things over, even if it was going to be tough.

If you got to know them better you’d have a better idea of how to fix this?

At the very least, you now had tabs on five of the guys. Now all you had to do was find Ray and not cause any more serious ripples. Then you could start trying to piece this puzzle back together.


	4. A New Hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You decide to help Geoff and bump into a very familiar face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who's back, Kitten's back, tell a friend. 
> 
> Sorry for the long absence, I really didn't mean to be gone for so long. I was having some serious self doubt of the story, but I'm feeling good now and I wanna come back. I also get real lazy when it comes to finishing projects. I can't promise to be weekly again but I can promise the next chapter is coming real soon!
> 
> I forgot how fun this series is to write. Alright on to the action!

            Ray wasn’t in any of your classes that day, which sucked because you’d already taken the liberty of writing his name on the bag with the last remaining donut in it. Michael’s reaction from earlier made you think he’d been skipping but you hadn’t even gotten a glimpse of him while running around in the hallways between classes. It wasn’t a huge deal, you could try a catch him tomorrow. Maybe you could even scrape Michael for more information from so you could come up with a good excuse to even talk to the M.I.A. boy in the first place. Or, maybe finding Ray wouldn’t even be an issue because everything would be back to normal and you’d all be friends again.

On top of that, the rumors about what had gone down on the football field had morphed into something else entirely. During every class groups of people were whispering about donuts and pointing at you. You’d heard two boys in the hallway talking about how you were giving donuts to all the people you liked. Some girls in the history had claimed if you got a donut, you were totally getting laid. In the lunch line, you’d overhead a freshman say something about donut receivers being your next “victims”.  

            You pressed your head against your tall red locker. This whole situation was just too bizarre for you accept yet but at least you could go home now. You could lay your head down on the pillow and pray things would go back to normal in the morning.

            “Hey!”

            Speaking of bizarre, you lifted to see Geoff approaching you holding a pile of text books.

            “Sup Geoff?”

            “Help me carry these to my car?”

            “Of course.” You relieved him of half of his pile as the two of you starting walking towards the front doors of the school. It was really nice to have at least one your friends like you right now.

            “So,” Geoff cleared his throat, “Heard you got into some…unsavory situations today.”

            “That’s one way of putting it.”

            “Were you actually asking me to prom or…?”

            “Nada,” You shook your head feeling your cheeks heat up a bit at the idea. As you glanced over at Geoff, you swore you could see a hint of disappointment on his face. “There is a method to my madness though.”

            “What exactly is it?”

             "I’ll tell you later.” You waved your hand dismissively. It was a little too early to drop the ‘hey you’re not acting anything like your supposed to be acting” card. He’d probably think you were sick again if you told him he was supposed to be friends with the current jerk that was Jack, cocky Gavin, and jock Ryan. Geoff pushed opened the front doors and you followed him down the cement steps into the courtyard in front of the school.

            “Well, if you’re not going to tell me, at least tell me you’re still helping me with my party Friday in honor of my presidential campaign.”

            So, the party was still happening, huh? “Yeah, of course. Are you going to pick up the alcohol, or should I?”

            You walked a couple more feet before realizing Geoff had stopped. You turned to look him and his mouth was agape.

           “What’s wrong?”

            He closed the distance between you and pulled you off to the side of the pavement.  

            “Are you talking about,” he glanced over his shoulder and waited in till a group of students passed and turned to you and whispered, “underage drinking?”

            “Y-Yes?” You knew Geoff didn’t drink anymore, but he knew alcohol was a requirement for any good rager at this high school.

            “I don’t think my parents would be happy with that.”

            “That’s kind of the point?” You imagined what the current party plans were and shuddered at the idea of everyone cramped in Geoff’s living room dying of boredom and leaving. You couldn’t let him embarrass himself in front of how ever many people decided to show up. “Look, I’ll call you later and we can talk more about your this later.”

            He raised an eyebrow at you but nodded. You were getting a lot more involved in this then you’d thought, but you were okay with that. Spending some more time with Geoffrey wouldn’t kill you. The two of you stepped into the parking lot. It could be kind of fun reteaching studious Geoff the party techniques that your Geoff taught you. You waited patiently as Geoff unlocked his passenger side door. In the moment of quiet, you started looking around and caught the glimpse of a familiar bad haircut heading towards the street. Wait that was-!

            “Geoff, I gotta go, uh, see you tomorrow. I need to check something.” you slammed the books down on Geoff’s roof and took off across the parking lot.

              You weaved through the cars being careful not to get run over while keeping an eye on black fluffy mohawk. That had to be him, you knew that haircut anywhere.

              You made it to the other side of the car maze and saw him, Ray, who’d made a good amount of progress away from the school already. You continued running towards him, desperate to catch him. Ray was wearing a black leather jacket and some black jeans, which was a confirmation was different because he never went anywhere with his purple Twitch hoodie. A smile pulled at your lips and you picked up the speed. You got about ten feet away before calling his name.

             “RAY!”

              As he started to turn around, you felt your shoe get caught and your body jerked forward sending you directly towards into him. Your weight combined with the speed brought the both you crashing into the pavement. The two of you groaned in pain. Your eyes opened and you looked down at the annoyed boy and couldn’t help but laugh a little at his dazed expression. This was definitely Ray. You reached for his glasses that had flown off his face during the impact and got off him.

              “Sorry about that.” You smiled sheepishly at him holding out a hand to him to help him sit up. He promptly snatched his glasses out of your hand and just scowled at you. He looked legitimately mad. “Hey, are you okay?”

              “Did you need something?” Ray spat at you and you blinked in surprise at how _venomous_ it had come out. As cliché as it was, your Ray was usually a ‘ray of sunshine’. Seeing him so stormy was really throwing you off. He got to his feet leaving you sat on the ground, baffled.

               “I um…” What did you want? To give him this stupid donut, yeah, he’d really like that right now.

               “I um, _what_?” He mocked you, eyes fierce. You didn’t know what to do. The other guys had at least been rude to you so it was easy to defend yourself, but this…he had every right to be like this. His first impression of you was crashing into him at ninety miles an hour for seemingly no reason. That didn’t mean he wasn’t scaring you though. You saw him glance down at the little paper bag with his name on it. He pointed at it.

                “Is that for me?”

                 You could only sit in silence as he towered over you, the painful scrapes the pavement left finally catching up with you. What were you supposed to say?

                 After the longest silence of your life, he let out a sharp exhale.  

                 “Whatever. Stay away from me, freak.” he mumbled before he turned around and started walking again.

                   You waited in till he was out of sight before standing up. You didn’t know what to think of that or if you’d ever be talking to Ray ever again. The thought him hating you made your throat tighten. There was nothing you could do, was there? You let out a shaky breathe and recollected your backpack from off the ground. Almost on auto pilot, you trudged your way to your car keeping your head down the whole time, dignity nowhere to be found.

 

***

                     As soon as you closed the door to your bedroom, the array of emotions from the day hit you all at once. Anger, fear, and guilt all combined into an inky black sludge that clouded your brain. You whipped your backpack to the side and threw yourself face first on to your bed. And you thought yesterday was a roller coaster. No yesterday was a merry go round. Today was the most gut wrenching, jaw dropping, terrifying ride you’d been on in quite a long time and you _really_ wanted to get off. The tears came quickly and didn’t stop. After sobbing for what felt like an eternity, you could only stare at the ceiling feeling absolutely helpless.

                     You’d fucked everything up so badly. Your stupid wish had done this hadn’t it? It’d didn’t matter how, because it had happened and was your current reality. As bad as you felt, you felt worse for the guys. They weren’t friends with each other anymore because of you. With one dumb sentence you’d destroyed everything you all worked so hard to create together.

                     You shut your eyes determined to think of anything else but couldn’t. All you could do was let those thoughts cycle over and over again in your brain in till you passed out.

 

                      A light buzzing coming from your bedside table woke you up. Without opening your eyes, you reached your phone. Your arm ached in protest as it extended outwards. In fact, your body was sore and achy. You cracked your eyes open. The sun had already set and you could smell dinner cooking downstairs. You slept for longer then you thought, you seriously must have been exhausted. You looked down at your phone to the text waiting for you.

**Geoff:** Is now a good time to talk?

                      Oh crap, you’d totally forgotten about Geoff.

**Me:** Give me a second I just woke up

**Geoff:** Take as long as you need.

                      You wiped the rest of sleep out of your eyes, and a thought struck you. You quickly went to check your contacts again but the same ones were still missing. This confirmed this hadn’t been one extended sick fever dream. The guys were really stuck like this. A new wave of dread washed over you. What were supposed to do without your friends? Sure, Geoff and Michael were great, but they weren’t actually _Geoff and Michael_ right now. It wasn’t fair. You ran your heads over your face and groaned.

                     There had to be some way out. There had to be some way to fix this.

                     As you raked your brain for anything, something clicked. Earlier, you’d hadn’t told Geoff about the real reason you’d given all the guys donuts, but what if you did? The group hadn’t completely formed before you’d moved to Austin. Some of guys and Lindsay had friendships, but it wasn’t in till after Gavin and Geoff met two years ago that the crew had fully assembled, and even than it was nowhere as strong as it had been before this mess. Maybe if you could find a way to push them towards each other again there might be a chance you could fix this.

                     They were drastically different people now but they weren’t all that alike when everyone had started hanging out in the first place. Some people had clicked faster than others but you’d all grown together for better or worse. So, if you got them to start at talking to each other, maybe that would be the proof that this could indeed be fixed. After that, you could tell them what you knew and convince them that them being friends was they way it was supposed to be.

                      It was a bit crazy right now in your half-awake daze, but you had to at least give it a shot.

                      You owed them that…

                      And you knew the perfect place to start. You reached for your phone, dialed Geoff’s number, and set your plan into motion.


End file.
